US embassy cable - 05QUITO1344

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 QUITO 001344 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, EC 
SUBJECT: FORMER FM FACING POSSIBLE CONGRESSIONAL CENSURE 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, Reason 1.4 (b&d) 
 
1.  (C) Summary:  The president of Congress has publicly 
threatened to bring charges against Former Foreign Minister 
Patricio Zuquilanda, who lost his position with ex-President 
Gutierrez' ouster, for violating Ecuador's sovereignty by 
allowing the US military to sink decrepit Ecuadorian flagged 
fishing vessels involved in migrant and drug smuggling.  As 
of June 9, however, no official petition for this motion had 
been brought before the Congress.  A frantic Zuquilanda 
called the Embassy on June 9, saying that the Ambassador 
would also be named in the inquiry.  The censure of 
Zuquilanda by Congress would be mostly symbolic, however, as 
it would carry no real weight.  The "boat sinking" issue has 
been controversial here, fueled by distorted media reports. 
The move by Congress is another sign of increasing 
nationalism, which looks to blame the US on a variety of 
issues.  End Summary. 
 
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Congress' Accusations Based on Leftist Report 
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2.  (U) Congress announced that it would seek censure of 
former FM Patricio Zuquilanda for allowing USG "boat 
sinkings," thereby permitting the violation of Ecuador's 
sovereignty.  President of Congress Wilfrido Lucero notified 
Zuquilanda on June 7 of the Congressional inquiry, which is 
based on a May 18 letter from the leftist Socialist and 
Pachakutik party blocks to the president of the Congress. 
The deputies state in their letter to Lucero that when 
Zuquilanda was asked to appear before the Congress to discuss 
the boat sinking issues while still FM, he either remained 
silent, discredited the accusations of USG wrongdoing, or 
repeated the US Embassy version without injecting his own 
criticism.  Zuquilanda is accused of knowing of the boat 
sinkings and having done nothing to stop them.  Zuquilanda, 
who served as FM under ex-President Lucio Gutierrez from 
August 2003 to April 2005, remains in Colombia since 
Gutierrez' ouster. 
 
3.  (U) The Congressmen's accusations against the former FM 
are primarily based on a report by ALDHU, a leftist 
Ecuadorian human rights organization.  The report states that 
the US has sunk approximately 40 Ecuadorian boats, many in 
Ecuadorian waters, since November 1999.  ALDHU also claims to 
possess a video with testimony of a detainee from one of the 
boats, who claims to have been tortured and degraded by the 
US military. 
 
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Zuquilanda, Panicked in Bogota 
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4.  (C) Zuquilanda, in Bogota, called the Embassy in a 
panicked state on June 9 with an urgent request to speak to 
the Ambassador, saying she had also been named in the 
Congressional inquiry.  Zuquilanda claimed Minister of 
Government Mauricio Gandara, a known nationalist, was behind 
the moves against him, and said that the leftists were taking 
over Ecuador; this was just another lashing out at the USG. 
Zuquilanda said he was preparing his defense paper. 
 
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Constitution Outlines Censure Procedure 
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5.  (U) Article 130 of the Constitution states that Congress 
can carry out a political trial against various high-level 
government officials during or within one year of ending 
their government service.  The Congress can then censure the 
official with a majority vote.  If the censure implies 
criminal violations, it will be recommended that the case 
pass to the criminal courts.  In Zuquilanda's case, the 
accusations only point to a violation of the Constitution 
concerning sovereignty, not a violation of the penal code. 
Therefore, a censure would be a symbolic gesture only. 
 
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Comment 
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6.  (SBU)  This political trial of the former Foreign 
Minister may turn into another forum for bashing the US.  For 
Ecuadorian Congressional leftists, who believe the US can do 
no right, Zuquilanda's failure to go along with the boat 
sinking accusations, whether or not they had validity, is 
considered a crime worth censure.  He seems to be on trial 
for insufficient public nationalistic posturing. 
 
7.  (C) While FM, Zuquilanda repeatedly claimed the "US could 
have no better friend in Ecuador" than him.  Regrettably, his 
actions rarely matched his bravado.  While Zuquilanda's 
Foreign Ministry was less frontal in its opposition to many 
USG policies, it rarely supported us on issues of concern, 
whether UN votes or bilaterally (Article 98).  Therefore, we 
do not feel we owe Zuquilanda any assistance on this matter. 
Kenney